Do Electric Furnaces Have Pilot Lights

The power switch to your furnace should look like a light switch make sure it s in the on position.

Do electric furnaces have pilot lights. Turn your furnace back on most electric furnaces have an ignition button with a smaller red button next to it. Because electronic ignitions are becoming so common in st. Once the burn cycle is complete both the burners and the pilot turn off. The furnace s electronic control board activates an electric igniter that uses a high voltage spark to light the pilot.

Find the ignition button. Now it is more common to light a burner electrically but gas pilot lights are still used when a high energy ignition source is necessary as in when lighting a large burner. Although today s standard electric furnace uses a hot surface ignition older models often use an intermittent pilot to ignite heat. Instead the pilot light only comes on when it needs to ignite the burner.

Louis area homes we want to help familiarize homeowners with them. Water heaters gas fireplaces and old gas stoves also often have similar pilot lights. Turn off the furnace. If your furnace has a round knob on the gas valve with the words off on pilot you have what s known as a standing.

When the thermostat signals the need for heat an electric system creates a spark that causes the. The pilot uses a high voltage spark of electricity to ignite heat when the thermostat indicates that it s getting too cold. In the recent decades many new technologies have made it possible for furnaces to operate more efficiently than ever. Although pilot lights are still present in homes with older systems most newly installed furnaces use an electronic ignition instead.

One of those technologies is the electronic ignition which replaces the standard pilot light that homeowners have been familiar with for many years. If you can t get the pilot in your electric furnace to light it s usually a simple matter to turn it back on. Turn off your furnace s power and gas supplies wait several minutes for the gas to clear. Intermittent pilots still use a pilot light however it isn t a standing pilot light that remains on all the time to ignite the burner whenever the gas turns on.

A pilot light is a small gas flame usually natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas which serves as an ignition source for a more powerful gas burner originally a pilot light was kept permanently alight but this wastes gas. Today we re going to talk about the difference between conventional pilot lights and electronic ignitions and why.